So what’s the solution to get more people to hop aboard here? Surely the downtown Amtrak station could use some sprucing up. Two people have told me they feel it is unsafe and not a good place to leave your car.

Moreover, three days of service eastbound and three days westbound at inopportune hours is probably not going to cut it, riders and analysts said.

Amtrak's Texas Eagle train waits to depart the station in San Antonio in 2006. Photo: Michael Hibblen/Miami Herald

Any of those improvements to the station or the service will cost money, likely from state and local sources. The Brookings report concluded that Amtrak’s future might rely less on federal funding, and more on partnerships with states and metro areas interested in timely links to other places. That could include giving states and local officials more choices regarding how to spend federal transportation money.

“We don’t want this perceived as an unfunded mandate,” researcher Adie Tomer said. “We want the states to have the flexibility, if they see this as something beneficial, to invest in intercity rail just like sidewalks and transit.”

The Brookings report concluded that Amtrak’s future might rely less on federal funding, and more on partnerships with states and metro areas interested in timely links to other places. That could include giving states and local officials more options of how to spend federal transportation money.

“We don’t want this perceived as an unfunded mandate,” Tomer said. “We want the states to have the flexibility, if they see this as something beneficial, to invest in intercity rail just like sidewalks and transit.”

4 Responses

Yes, Houston’s former Southern Pacific depot plays a role in the issue at hand, but it’s only symptomatic of the larger, overriding problem: government “leaders” – both in Austin and Washington – who really don’t care about establishing transportation alternatives, much less taking things like energy independence, environmental stewardship and “quality of life” seriously.

The United States needs to create a comprehensive transportation policy – one which includes rail-based technologies as equal players! Furthermore, this policy should include specific plans for a true national network of passenger train services. Vital transport infrastructures, such as our Interstate Highway and air traffic control systems, were never developed independently, state by state. To presume we’d be better off with local planning for railway initiatives is ludicrous!

A downtown terminal facility, suitable for tomorrow’s traffic levels (including both regional/commuter and intercity services), with more than a nod toward safety, comfort and aesthetics, and with all the necessary railroad operational needs properly addressed from the start, is an absolute must! Union Station should have never been made into a ballpark; those responsible possessed NO vision or forethought. Still, the existing SP site could become something wonderful again, IF responsible parties truly understood the overarching requirement for a single station able to handle convenient, direct connections between ALL of Houston’s future railway routes! [For example, proposing the restoration of passenger train service to Galveston, but not planning for it to proceed all the way into a single, major centre-city terminal, is foolhardy at best and unconscionable at worst!]

Naturally, the existence of a downtown terminal station does not preclude the establishment of suburban/exurban depots.

Insofar as individual lines on a map are concerned, we should begin with additional frequencies along the Sunset Route: daily operations to Los Angeles and New Orleans…and the previously operated Florida extension restored. At least two more daily trains should then be added between New Orleans and San Antonio.

Another service Amtrak once operated which should immediately be reinstated is the route to Dallas, with at least one train each way, daily, making connections to points north – and an additional choice of frequencies (perhaps beginning with three or four trains) spaced throughout the day.

Direct services to Longview (connecting with the popular Texas Eagle to Little Rock, St. Louis and Chicago), down along the Gulf coast and into the Valley, and northwest to Temple, Brownwood, Lubbock and Albuquerque (offering transcontinental connections) are also quite reasonable – presuming our honest intent is to lay a healthy foundation for future growth.

All this – and more – can be done, at reasonable cost, when compared to long-term alternatives.

I only wish our elected officials would listen…at least long enough to understand the benefits of a truly national approach to passenger train operations.

Yes, Houston’s former Southern Pacific depot plays a role in the issue at hand, but it’s only symptomatic of the larger, overriding problem: government “leaders” – both in Austin and Washington – who really don’t care about establishing transportation alternatives, much less taking things like energy independence, environmental stewardship and “quality of life” seriously.

We may have no choice but to expand passenger rail lines in Texas. I hear that the state highway fund is now over $170 Billion dollars in the red. That’s over 4 TIMES MORE that all the tax money ever given to the ENTIRE national Amtrak system in its entire 40 year history. And when you take into account that Amtrak covers 88% of its costs while highways cover only 51%, an honest conservative understands we need to invest more in rail passenger lines and less in highways.